iCyclades - Cyclades Discovery Guide

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We can see now a Wattwil (St. Gallen) dwelling house with its small outbuilding. On the left we can see the Appenzell farmer's house.

We pass through the forest to the next glade, where we will see an old dwelling house from Wattwil (St. Gallen).

The forests of Ballenberg are very beautiful and always provide pleasant passages from one glade to another.

The path through the forest leads up to the Degen inn. Don't miss the didactic panels explaining the various uses of wood!

To bring water to the various mills below, there is a wooden canal similar to the famous "bisses" in Valais.

This farmhouse was once built in Brülisau, a village in the half-canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. It was built in 1754, with an adjoining barn-stable dating from 1621.

The building is representative of Appenzell farmers' houses. Typically, in this region, the peasant house resulted from the juxtaposition of the stable and the dwelling house, for obvious practical reasons.

The house, stables and barn are made of logs and only the foundations and the fire wall in the kitchen are made of masonry.

Few alpine chalets have survived during centuries. This chalet in Axalp, above Brienz (Berner Oberland), was built in 1520, half a millennium ago. It had only an open fireplace for the cauldron, tools for milking, cheese-making and wood-cutting, and a small room under the roof.

We now come to the alp cheese dairy from 1780, which comes from Kandersteg (Berner Oberland). The tiny building you see nearby is a cheese loft, also from 1780.

Before continuing the tour towards the dwellings from Berner Oberland, we will go in to witness the traditional production of alpine cheese, as this old cheese dairy is in operation and is one of the attractions of Ballenberg.

This farmhouse from 1698 comes from Bonderlen above Adelboden in the Berner Oberland. It was the very first house to be rebuilt in Ballenberg in 1970, eight years before the opening of the museum. Let's go in...

The survival of peasant families often depended on an additional income. The large windows of this house illuminated a workshop where boxes were made from wood shavings, small matchboxes which, from the 1860s to the 1910s, represented a financial supplement for the peasants of the region.

This type of peasant house had been chosen in the Kandertal since the 15th century. Stable, barn and dwelling were united under the same roof to avoid the long journeys necessary for the care of the livestock.

This alpine cheese dairy from 1780 has found a new life in Ballenberg. Here you can see the entire production process and you can even buy the cheese produced here in the traditional way.

Degen Inn dates from 1891 and comes from Hünenberg (Zug), but the building is probably older. Dendrochronological analysis shows that the timber was cut between 1837 and 1842, and according to oral tradition the inn comes from the canton of Lucerne, replacing a Degen pub which had burnt down a few years earlier. At that time, dismantling, transporting and reassembling cost less than building a new one, and sometimes a building was moved to a new location.

Here we are in the kitchen of this alpine chalet which dates back to 1825. The alpine pasture, situated a few hundred metres from the border with Italy, remained partially in use until 1984, when it was swept away by modern life...

We pass a 19th century pigsty from Champatsch in Val Müstair (Graubünden). In front of us, we see a chalet, a stable and a shelter from the same period and from the same mountain pasture. We are going to take a look inside the chalet...

This large shelter was a "Schermen", an awning under which the animals sheltered in case of rain or snow and where they were milked when it was not possible outside. The building, which is partially open on the side, is perhaps older than the rest, as the "modern" stables appeared more recently.

Such giant presses, with beams more than ten metres long, existed in several regions as early as the 14th and 15th centuries. The powerful beams function as levers and are capable of exerting a thrust of a few dozen tons. This 1695 press weighs 2500kg and comes from Fläsch (Graubünden) on the banks of the Rhine river.

One of the liveliest places in Ballenberg. Picnic tables, animals to stroke, a merry-go-round. The building you see to the right of the path is a play hall from 1909 from Sarnen (Obwalden, Central Switzerland).

This barn-stable stood in Meggen, near Lucerne. It is the oldest independent utility building in central Switzerland, i.e. not integrated into a farm building. It was restructured, enlarged and provided with a cellar and a steeper roof in 1799, while keeping the old part in the new one, thus forming a building within another. Let's walk through the building to see the facade and then leave for Ticino.

Before leaving in the direction of the buildings from Ticino, we are on the other side of the barn-stable and can see the façade of the medieval Schwyz house on the right.

A 19th century peasant house that was once in Escholzmatt in the Lucerne Entlebuch (Central Switzerland). The date of its construction remains unknown, the archives speak of a new construction in 1860 but the wood was cut down around 1800.

This "Maiensäss" (mayen in French) from Buochs, Canton Nidwalden, was built in 1788. The mayens were - and still are - small dwellings built halfway up the mountain pastures to save the farmer the journey back and forth between his main residence in the valley and the high mountain pastures.

The mayen is a simplified version of a main dwelling house: a kitchen with fireplace and cheese cauldron, a living room which also serves as a bedroom, and a rubble stone basement housing the milk cellar.

This 15th century wine press, transformed and enlarged between 1743 and 1750, used to be located in La Rhyhalde, the vineyard to the east of Schaffhausen, near a convent. Passing on its right, you will go towards the "Brandboden" and its lime and charcoal kilns.

In the vineyards of the German-speaking part of Switzerland, presses were used to press grapes to make wine, but also apples to make cider. Let's have a look inside to see the actual wine press, which comes from Graubünden...

This house was built on the Landsgemeinde square in Schwyz (central Switzerland) in 1336, a few years after the Grütli Pact which marked the birth of Switzerland. When the house was rebuilt in Ballenberg, an attempt was made to reconstruct the state of 1400 as far as possible, but the house was not furnished as no one has the originals or the knowledge to do it.

Cross the small bridge over the brook and admire the beautiful half-timbered houses of Zurich and Thurgau.

This dwelling comes from Wattwil in Toggenburg (canton of St. Gallen). The tree used for the core of the building was felled in the years 1450-1454. It is one of the oldest buildings in eastern Switzerland and was extended and converted in 1748.

The house was owned by peasants and home workers from the lower social classes. The narrow, sparsely furnished rooms bear witness to the modest life of the peasants at the end of the Middle Ages.

Rebuilt in Ballenberg, it now has the original low-pitched roof and the old walls as they were at the end of the Middle Ages, but with its windows and shutters from the 18th/19th centuries.

If you continue straight ahead on the path, you will arrive in the Bernese Oberland. If you take the stairs climbing to the right, you will reach the Wallis/Valais and the Alps.

This small pond nestled in the forest feeds the stream that runs the sawmill, linseed crusher and bone mill that you will see in the next glade.

An old-fashioned merry-go-round as you can hardly see any more...

One of the favourite places for children, who are always fascinated by the sight of a dozen piglets suckling their mother!

We now continue straight on towards the large Appenzell farmhouse that we cannot see yet. On the left, another path leads up to a dwelling house from Brienz (Berner Oberland) dating from 1776. The small chalet on the right is a cheese hut from Lütschental (Berner Oberland) dating from the early 17th century.

The old Appenzell farmhouse is at the bottom of the path. On the left, another path leads up to the Restaurant Degen. The large chalet we see on the hill behind us is a dwelling house from 1776 from Brienz (Bernese Oberland).

On the way out of the forest, going up to the Degen inn, we will have the opportunity to see several interesting buildings from Central Switzerland.

At the top of the path we see the Degen inn, which dates back to the 19th century. On the right we see a 17th/19th century dwelling from Sachseln (Obwalden) and a barn-stable from the same canton, dating from 1838.

These 17th-19th century alpine pasture buildings were once in Richinen, above Bellwald and Fiesch (Goms Valley, Upper Wallis), where mountain farmers used to prepare cheese in the summer. There were 39 of these chalets and a chapel on this mountain pasture, which has now become a ski area.

When the small buildings on the Richinen mountain pasture were abandoned and demolished, five of them were taken over by the museum: a herder’s hut for cheesemaking, two stalls, and two more herder’s huts that were later converted into a stall and a cheese store.

Entering Ballenberg via the east entrance (Brienzwiler and Brünig road side), you pass a small 18th century chapel, which originally stood in Turtig/Raron (Wallis/Valais).

This house from Blatten (Lötschental, Wallis) was built in 1568. It is one of the last with all the characteristics of the Alpine dwellings of the late Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were still about 30 such houses in the Lötschental, some of which had been built between 1410 and 1530.

This mill from Naters, built of logs on a masonry base, is typical of mills in the side valleys of Wallis (Valais). The building is probably older than the date of 1872 inscribed above the door.

We pass a house dating from 1730 which once stood in Erstfeld in the canton of Uri (Central Switzerland). In the distance, we can see the Degen Inn and various other buildings, also from Central Switzerland.

On this forest path, didactic panels present the various types of wood and their uses. A nod to modern consumer society: this supermarket trolley is made entirely of wood, including the wheels, to show how farmers managed things when iron was scarce.

The small half-timbered house is a granary from Wellhausen (Thurgau) dating from the 18th century. Behind the fountain you can see a large farmhouse from Uesslingen (Thurgau) built around 1570. On the right, behind the large Zurich farmhouse, you can see a triple granary from Tagelswangen (Lindau, Zurich) dating from 1534, which was extended in 1661 and further enlarged and restored in 1819.

Here we are in the middle of the Zurich countryside, at the corner of a laundry from 1750-1800 from Rüschlikon. To its right, a 19th century grape-pomace dryer from Männedorf. Opposite us is a winegrower's house built around 1780 in Richterswil, with a half-masked 19th century apiary from Mettmenstetten on its right.

This farmhouse from Wila, in the canton of Zurich, was built around 1680. It is a timber-frame construction with grooved posts into which superimposed planks are inserted, a type of construction which became a rarity in the region but which was common in north-eastern Switzerland until 1700.

Three types of hydraulic mills are grouped here: a sawmill from Rafz (Zurich) probably dating from 1841, an 18th-century mill from Graubünden converted into a linseed crusher in 1930 and a bone mill from 1800 coming from Knonau (Zurich). Bone powder, which contains more than 20% phosphates, was added to manure as a natural fertiliser.

This vintner's house was located in Richterswil on the shores of Lake Zurich. Built around 1780, it is one of the characteristic buildings of the Zurich landscape, with a facade that bears witness to the half-timbered construction of the 18th century.

This large vintners' house was in fact inhabited alternately by one, two or even three families working as craftsmen, who cultivated the vines only incidentally.